Rugby franchise Moana Pasifika added a new wave of players to the game when they debuted in 2022.
A dream come true for legends of the sport like team patron Tuifa’asisina Sir Bryan Williams.
“The mission was to enhance the national teams of Fiji, Sāmoa, Tonga and with the addition of Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika we are now able to offer our players a professional playing opportunity in this part of the world where they don’t have to go to Europe, France and Japan and they can still play here and then feed into their national teams,” Tuifa’asisina says.
Along with another newly established Pacific franchise, the Fijian Drua, they’ve been able to sign up some established players from New Zealand, Australia as well as the Pacific, making history along the way.
“I can assure you that there’s celebrations and probably dancing on the streets for many of the villages out there in the Pacific,” Moana Pasifika chair, La’auli Savae Sir Michael Jones said at the launch of the team back in 2021.
“There’s always been aspirations for Pasifika rugby in some form or shape are involved in professional rugby particularly in this part of the world in the past super rugby of the past 25 years.”
Covid 19 and the global shutdown interrupted that first year of competition as the team looked to find its feet and develop players. But that wasn’t the only hurdle.
“Many people felt a Pasifika team in super rugby was going to maybe take away fans, certainly going to take away playing stocks,” says Tuifa’asisina.
“As time has gone by, we’ve been able to illustrate the fact that many of our players have come from a development area of the Pasifika.”
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing with wins tough to come by but still the team persevered.
Now with three seasons under their belt the team has announced a new owner in the Pasifika Medical Association. The group found common purpose and injected some much-needed financial support.
Pasifika Medical Association Group CEO, Debbie Sorensen is excited about the partnership as it will translate into better health outcomes for the community.
“We feel that we were able to bring some resources, some stability and some sustainability to the rugby franchise. It feels to me that it’s the right move and I think we were just lucky in terms of timing as an organization it’s taken 30 years for us to build up our resources. We were in a position where we were able to do something like this,” Sorenson says.
And to cap off the changes at the top, Moana Pasifika has signed All Blacks vice-captain and the 2023 world rugby player of the year, Ardie Save for three years.
Joining his older brother Julian Savea at he club, Ardie is looking forward to making a splash when he joins the team.
“I represented the hurricanes and really honoured for that and the All Blacks but I feel like, in my heart, it’s time to try and give back and be around the brothers and try something new and challenge not only myself, the team to go to different places that we haven’t been to before.”
